It's official: Lin is a Laker

The Los Angeles Lakers made it official Sunday: They have acquired former Palo Alto High School guard Jeremy Lin from the Houston Rockets.

Lin returned home from a trip to China on Saturday to take a physical so the deal could be completed. He apologized to his Chinese fans on Weibo (China's version of Facebook), saying he had to go "take care of some business."

The Rockets will also will send first- and second-round draft picks in 2015 to the Lakers and receive the rights to center Sergei Lishchuk, a star in the Spanish League.

Lin, who averaged 12.5 points and 4.1 assists last season for Houston, posted messages on Twitter and Facebook on Monday, along with a picture of himself smiling and wearing a Lakers cap.

"Thank you to Houston fans, media, Rockets staff, coaches and teammates for the last 2 years," Lin wrote. "Sad it never went, or ended, the way I had envisioned it to, but God always has a perfect plan and I'll forever cherish that chapter of my life. Im SO blessed to join the Lakers and cant wait to get started!!! #purpleandgold #calikid."

Roger Montgomery, Lin's agent, told ESPN that the Lakers had been interested in Lin since 2010, when the Harvard grad made an impression by leading the Dallas Mavericks' summer league team in shooting. The Lakers were among three teams to offer Lin a contract that summer. He chose the Golden State Warriors.

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"I think Jeremy is excited and thrilled about the opportunity," Montgomery said. "It's been a lot of speculation about, 'Is he going to stay? Is he going to leave?' And I think landing in Los Angeles is a really cool opportunity for him for a number of reasons."

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak seems less stoked. In the team's statement announcing the trade Kupchak called Lin "a solid player" and said the Lakers expect the community to "warmly embrace" the point guard.

The Rockets made the deal to free up space under the NBA's salary cap in order to pursue a big-name free agent. Lin is scheduled to make $14.9 this season in the last year of a three-year deal that counts only $8 million against the salary cap. The Lakers are among the few teams with enough cap room to absorb Lin's contract.

Lin is a point guard who can score. He could provide relief in the scoring department for Kobe Bryant, the Lakers' 36-year-old superstar who missed all but six games last season with injuries.

Lin earned his $25 million contract with the Rockets with a half-season of spectacular play in 2012 with the New York Knicks, who signed him midseason and expected him to be a bench player at a time when their roster was riddled by injuries. After outplaying some of the NBA's best players, including Bryant, the "Linsanity" phenomenon was born.

Lin started 33 games for the Rockets last season but was benched in favor of Patrick Beverley. Houston coach Kevin McHale said he made the move to get more tenacity on defense, given that the other starting guard, free-shooting James Harden, is not a strong defender.

Rockets owner Leslie Alexander released a statement on the trade.

"On behalf of the entire organization and Rockets fans around the world, I want to thank Jeremy for his contributions to our organization," Alexander said. "It has been a joy to watch Jeremy over the past few seasons. We wish him all the best in the future."

Former Lakers all-star Byron Scott, who went on to become an NBA head coach and TV analyst, is among those looking forward to the Linsanity in L.A. He told Comcast SportsNet that he's a Lin fan.

"I think he's a kid that plays the game the right way, he plays extremely hard, seems to always be in attack mode offensively," Scott said. "He pushes the ball up the floor as well as anybody in the league. Defensively -- the thing I thought was going to be his biggest downfall -- was something that I thought he really competed at in the time that I coached against him.